The Library

Libraries: The medicine chest of the soul.

~Library at Thebes, inscription over the door

I love the library.

Like songs have always been, BOOKS are my friends.

Growing up, I would devour books, one after the other.

I was sad when I finished a book and couldn't read more about my beloved characters.

On the happiest days for me in elementary/middle school,

we would receive our little Scholastic book order sheets

and I would circle all the books I wanted my parents to get for me.

I'd see the newspaper-type handout with this little logo on the top corner

and my smile couldn't be contained.

There was just something so enticing about getting lost in the lives of other kids like me.

I think my all-time favorite series of books when I was young was
 The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann Martin.

I read every single one of her books several times each and there were a lot of them.

She and that series made me into the reader that I am today.

I so want to instill that in my kids.

Charlie is at that perfect age.

He will soon learn to read and I'm so excited about that.

I spent summers at the library reading programs when I was a kid.

Sadly, I hadn't been to a library in what seems like years.

I went once a few months ago and got a new library card

but haven't been since to take advantage of all the library has to offer.

That's one downfall to having so many Barnes & Nobles around.

I adore the smell of library books.

That distinct smell of old, yellowing pages carrying

stories of all kinds of different people and places.

Reading those pages that hundreds of people have read before you

but feeling like you're the only one who's ever read it... that it's yours alone.

Today, my kids embarked on their journey to loving books.
Charlie got his first library card.

Here is Charlie, signing his library card

We joined the summer reading program at the same library I joined as a child.
I felt a rush walking into the children's section with my littles
and sitting there on the ABC carpet and reading with them.

It felt like a full circle moment.

Charlie ran around and was so excited to choose his six books to take home.
Kate was a little more on the timid side.
She walked around slowly, cautiously and smiled shyly as she touched the spine
of all the books in front of her. She chose each book she wanted very carefully.

Even my little Ella was getting her summer readin' in...

Look at her, reading books on Matisse

(Pure genius, I tell you.)

When she sat at the library tables, shhing Ella's babbles and telling Charlie to sit down,

she would open her book and run her little finger along the words.

When she saw me watching her, I'd get a shy smile again and be told to not watch her.

Kate's Choices:

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Hello, Love
Freckleface Strawberry
My Garden

Charlie's Choices:

Spiderman

Peter Pan

Casey Back at Bat

Ella Sarah Gets Dressed

Help!

The Night Pirates

It was nice to be welcomed back into the place I so enjoyed going as a kid.
To see all my old friends again.
I'm definitely not letting this much time pass again between visits.

A good book is the best of friends.

- English Proverb